Martha Josefina Puente Guillén

She was born at La Clínica Los Angeles de Santiago de Cuba. Her family lived in Palma Soriano and there she completed her early studies, through her High School degree in Sciences, which she finished in 1960.

She enrolled in the Economics program at Universidad de Oriente, but found that was not her calling. In 1961, the School of Medicine at Universidad de Oriente was founded and she enrolled in studies again, this time in Medicine.

In her 5th year of studies she took the course in Urology with Professors Pedro Paredes Vila, Ramón Cordiés Negret and Angel Arias Lorente, in addition to the post-graduate instructors from Hospital General Calixto García: Drs. Ocilio Rodríguez, René Gómez Areces, Julio Durán Prieto and Ibrahim Pino Cano. As a medical student she performed healthcare work in Pinalito de Cambute and in Realengo 18.

In her 6th year she applied for a vertical internship in Urology for which two positions had been offered. There were two classmates and her with the same desire and she was able to obtain the requested position because one of her classmates was military and was given the option through the military route.

It was then that the first woman began to practice Urology in the country: year 1966. She graduated as a Physician in 1967, as part of a group of 47 classmates who were the first class of doctors trained in Santiago de Cuba.

She began her Urology postgraduate studies at the Hospital "Vladimir Ilich Lenin", in the city of Holguín, continued at the Provincial Hospital of Guantánamo, then in Bayate as a General Physician and completed it at the Pediatric Hospital of Santiago de Cuba (ONDI) with Professor Angel Arias Lorente.

She moved to La Habana and began her Urology residency in 1971 at Hospital "Joaquín Albarrán", with Professors Adalberto Rodríguez López and Alfredo Gómez Sampera. During her residency she had the opportunity to participate in kidney transplants performed at the Instituto de Nefrología. She graduated as a First-Degree Specialist in Urology in 1974.

She remained at Hospital "Joaquín Albarrán" and later was assigned to Hospital "Julio Díaz", where conditions did not allow for proper development of the specialty, so she requested a transfer to Hospital "Miguel Enríquez" where she achieved the teaching positions of instructor and later Assistant Professor, substituting for the Chief of Service and the Department of Urology (Dr. Ocilio Rodríguez) during his two-year mission in Nicaragua.

She was a collaborator in the publication of the Urology Book by Prof. Ricardo Portilla Sánchez, which served as a textbook for Medical students until 2009.

In 1984 she transferred to Hospital "Hermanos Ameijeiras" for the Urology service directed by Prof. Alfredo Gómez Sampera. She was requested by the Lithotripsy and Endourology Service and began performing endourology work in that service (first woman to perform ureteroscopies and ureteral stone extraction in the country). She received endourology training at Hospital Cochin in Paris and continued her endourology work until 1988 when she requested a transfer to Hospital "Gral. Freyre Andrade", in the Urology Service, under the direction of Dr. Manuel Lemourt Oliva.

She continued working in patient care and teaching 5th year students at Facultad General Calixto García, as well as residents from the province in centralized seminars. In 1998 she retired but continued her work voluntarily until May 2009, when due to family circumstances she was unable to continue.

She was a Full and Active Member of the Sociedad Cubana de Urología and was a Member of the Board of Directors of the Society for a period of 4 years. She has participated in all National Urology Congresses and has presented numerous papers and posters at scientific meetings. At Congresses of the American Confederation of Urology and the International Society of Urology, papers have been presented where she appears as author or co-author. She was named Honorary Member of the Sociedad Cubana de Urología at the Urology Congress of the Sociedad Cubana de Urología in 2004 held in Santiago de Cuba.